Here's a prized first day cover that I have with a great
looking lithographed pen and ink illustration of a mono-wing airplane flying over the Capitol Building and a mail carrier
on a motorcycle speeding away with the mail.

It was the first day of issue of the Air Mail Special
Delivery stamp on February 10, 1936 in Washington D.C.

The
stamps represented on this illustrated cachet include a very rare variety of a plate numbered block of four very seldom seen.
I've not seen another cachet like this one yet.

It was flown to a man by the name of Homer Harrison
and received in Milkwaukee, Wisconsin on the very same day.

I've never seen another like it and my thought is
that the cachet may have been created by the Milwaukee Stamp Company for the occasion, for their clients and for other collectors.

Here's the reverse with the circular date stamps featuring two
strikes from the Milwaukee postal authorities as received and the logo circular stamp of the Milwaukee Stamp Company.

In 1934, the 16¢ blue Airmail
Special Delivery stamp was issued to prepay, through the use with one stamp, the nation's air postage and the special delivery
fee. Mail with this stamp would travel by air to the designated post office and, once it had been received at that
post office, a messenger would deliver it right away to the recipient.

The stamp above, printed in carmine and blue, was the second type produced in 1936. There were only
two types. The blue and the one above.

The stamp was designed by President
Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Stamp Collecting
was his life-long passion, as it has been mine.

This was his sketch of the stamp
that he created for our nation.

President Roosevelt had passed
away before I was born, but he is one of the most important reasons of all why I became a stamp collector as a child.

For the next few weeks I'll be talking
about the first day covers of ArtCraft along with everything else.

ArtCraft closed it's doors recently after 76 years of making philatelic history.

I'm predicting a sudden, salubrious escalation in the value
of the ArtCraft cachet, all ArtCraft first day covers and ArtCraft portrait cards.Including those connected to the Postal Commemorative Society

Their departure signals the end of an extraordinarily crucial,
very important, highly significant and exceedingly meaningful period in philately

A mournful signal which will be heard around the world and
lamented throughout the multitude of collectors

Leo
and Sam August treasured their associations with the world's greatest philatelists

Leo's contributions to our hobby were significant enough
to earn the coveted Luft Award and a place in the American Philatelic Society Hall of Fame.

ArtCraft has well-earned it's place in the great chronological
record in the history of philately.

Their
raised ink, line-engraved intaglio printed cachets rank among the most aesthetic in the world.

ArtCraft cachets are not just beautiful.

They are works
of art that showcase the wonders of the world and illuminate the powers of human creativity and ingenuity.

The Coober Pedy CoverOne of the World's Great Philatelic Rarities

Could this become la pièce
de résistance de toute la modern Australian philatélie ?

Coober Pedy is a town in northern South Australia. The town is sometimes referred to as the "opal
capital of the world" because of the quantity of precious opals that are mined there. Coober Pedy is renowned for its
below-ground residences,called "dugouts", which are built in this fashion due to the scorching daytime heat.
The name "Coober Pedy" comes from the local Aboriginal term kupa-piti, which means "white man's hole".

Opal was found in Coober Pedy on 1 February 1915; since then the town has been supplying most of the world's gem-quality
opal. Coober Pedy today relies as much on tourism as the opal mining industry to provide the community with employment
and sustainability. Coober Pedy has over 70 opal fields and is the largest opal mining area in the world.

Coober
Pedy - no village, no buildings, no roads, just desert, mountains dotted with boulders. A bizarre lunar landscape, but
for opal seekers is the most exciting place on earth, where again every day is the true challenge, happiness and luck just
a shovel width apart and where life is defined by two words: winners and losers. Coober Pedy, grab your hat, throw it
into the air and where it lands start digging !